Power driven reel



Nov. 1, 1932. F. J. L11-TELL 1,835,612

POWER DRIVEN REEL Filed Feb. 28, 1930 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 N x\ N.

Nov. 1, 1932. F. J. LITTELL POWER DRIVEN REEL Filed Feb. 28, 1950 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Nov.v 1, 1932. F. J. LITTELL POWER DRIVEN REEL Filed Feb. 28, 1930 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 Nov. 1, 1932 4F. J. LITTELL POWER DRIVEN REEL Filed Feb. 28, 1950 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Patented Nov. 1, 1932 UNITED STATlS PATENT OFFICE ,FREDERICK J. LITTELL, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO F. J'. LITTELL MACHINE COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS POWER DRIVEN IREEL Application filed February 28, 1930. Serial No. 432,083.

Tlhe invention relates to mechanical feeding mechanism and has reference more par? Y ates .upon stock materialin the for-m of a lo coil, which first must be conditioned before being presented to the working tool of the machine. The several operative units which go to malte up the conditioning in the feeding mechanism of such'machines Vare usually mounted in longitudinal alignment upon an elongated press bed and actuated from the plunger or shaft of themachine which they serve. This mechanism comprises straightening and feeding rolls. The stock material 0' is presented to the rolls from a coil'o'f stock,

which heretofore has been merely mounted on a windl'ass and fed to the working tool' of the machine by means `of the conditioning l mechanism. This has resulted in many unes' desirable features, in that the strain placed upon the conditioning mechanism in uncoiling the stock when the coil is large and heavy,

causes slippage in the feeding rolls and consequent inaccurate operation of the machine.

30' The present invention has for its object to provide a. novel mechanism for supporting the coil of stock for presentation to the machine and which will embody means for positively driving the coil at the desired 3'5" speeds.

Another object of the invention is to provide power drive mechanism for coils wherein the power will be applied to the periphery of the coil so that the amount of stock pre- 4() sented to the machine will at all times correspond substantially to the `amount of rotation y of Figure 3.

for'feeding metal stock to machines, the invention distinctly contemplates a much broader application. Thus the invention may be incorporated in a device for supporting rolls of paper and positively feeding the paper to the press, or in any other supporting mechanism wherein the stock is in the form of coils from which it is fed to the machine.

llith these and various other objects in view, the invention may consist of certain novel features of construction and operas tion, as will be more fully described and particularly pointed out in the specification, drawings and claims appended hereto.

In the drawings, which illustrate an embodiinent of the device and wherein like reference characters are used to designate like parts* l Y Figure l is a side elevational of power drive mechanism for coils of stock constructed in accordance with thepresent invention.

Figure 2 is an end elevation of the device.

Figure 3 is a plan view of the same.

Figure l is a section view taken along line Figure 5 is a section view taken along line 5-5 of Figure 4, showing the clutch construction.

Figure 6 is a modified clutch construction.

Figure 7 is a sectional view showing the sprocket wheel as directly secured to the drive shaft, the clutch being omitted.

Y Figure 8 is a modified form of power drive mechanism for coils.

Figure 9 is a plan view of the same.

Figure 10 is another modified form of power drive mechanism.

Figure 1l is a plan view of the same. Referring to Figure l of the drawings, the present invention comprises asupporting vdevice-for coils 10, including a base ll of substantially rectangular shape Vand formed by securing together a plurality of `channel members l2. Secured to the channel members at spaced intervals are a plurality of up rights 13 and le, located on respective sides of the base ll and joined at their top by bars l5. Located intermediate of theV uprights are cross-bars 16, being secured to the uprights 'outer end with a sprocket wheel 50.

13 by means of rods 17 and to the uprights 14 by means of rods 18. Secured to the outer free end of the cross-bars 16 are plates 19, within which is j ournaled an idler 20. Also journaled within the uprights 13 is a second idler 21 loosely mounted on transverse shaft 22. The cross-bars 16 are located on both sides of the reel 10 and in connection with the idlers 20 and 21 serve to form a positioning means for locating the coil directly over su l porting rollers, to be presently described.

The channel members 12 comprising base 11 are provided with slots 23 for adjustably locating on the base journal boxes 24, which are secured in desired position by bolts 25. The boxes 24 form journaling means for a shaft 26, which has mounted thereon a supporting roller 27. On the outer end of the shaft 26 is keyed or otherwise secured a sprocket wheel 23. The channel members 12 also have secured to them journal boxes 30 by means of bolt-s 31, which boxes form journaling means for a shaft 32 and a drive shaft 3 The shaft 32 has mounted intermediate its ends a supporting roller 34 and at its outer end a pinion 35 and a sprocket wheel The drive shaft 33 is provided at one end with a hub 37, loosely mounted on the shaft, which hub has secured to it by bolts 38 a sprocketwheel 39. On the. other end of the drive shaft is keyed a pinion 40, meshing with pinion-35. For operatively connecting' the various shafts upon which the supporting rollers are mounted, a chain 41 is provided connecting sprocket wh-eels 28 and 36. An idler 42 journaled in supports 43 and adj ristably mounted on the uprights 14 by means of a slot 44 serves to take up the slack in the chain 41.

Since the present invention comprises a supporting mechanism for coils of metal, it is adapted to be associated with various types of metal working machines, such as punch presses and the like, which have mount-ed on their bed plate a series of straightening and feeding' rolls through which a strip metal must pass in order to be conditioned before it is presented to the working tool of the press. This constitutes only one commercial application of the present invention, and although the drawings show a form of feeding rolls for punch presses, it is understood that the invention is not necessarily limited in the application to this type of machine.

The feed rolls 45 and 46 are shown journaled within bearing boxes 47, mounted upon a press bed 48. The shaft 49, upon which is mounted the feed roll 46, is provided at its By means of a chain 51, the sprocket wheel is operatively connected to the sprocket wheel 39 and through clutch mechanism, to be presently described, to the drive shaft 33, and thus the lsupporting rollers for the reel.

` Thus, it will be seen that the supporting mechanism for the coil is driven by power derived from feeding rolls of the punch press and is therefore adapted to impart rotations to the coil at those times when the feed rolls are operat-ed order to feed the metal to the working tool of the press.

At times when associated with certain classes of punch presses, the coil will be given intermittent rotation, and for efficient operation it is desirable to allow the coil to continue its rotation after being actuated. For this purpose the drive shaft 33 embodies an over-running clutch located within the hub 37 and comprising, as shown in Figure 5, a collar 52, which is keyed or otherwise secured to the drive shaft 33, while the hub 37 is loosely mounted on the shaft. The collar 52 is provided with cut out angle portions 53, located on its periphery, the portions serving to ho use roller bearings 54, which are resiliently pressed in the desired direction by springs 55. With power being applied to the sprocket wheel 39 in the direction as shown by the arrow, the roller bearings 54 will form a wedge between the collar 52 and the hub 37 so that the collar 52 will be positively driven in the direction of the sprocket wheel 39, thus rotating in the same direction the drive shaft 33. However, the clutch construction is such as to allow rotation of collar 52, after the sprocket wheel ceases its rotation, since the roller bea-rings 54 will be forced against the tension of springs 55 removing the lock between the rotating parts.

The same idea is embodied in the modified form of clutch shown in Figure 6, wherein the hub 37 is loosely mounted on drive shaft 33 and collar 52 is keyed to the shaft. A pin 56 is located in the hub 37 and a second pin 57 is located in the collar 52. A conventional form of coil spring 58 is housed within the hub 37 and secured at one end to the pin 56 and at its other end to the pin 57. This construction also allows rotations imparted to hub 37 through sprocket wheel 39 to be transmitted to the drive shaft 33 and in addition allows the drive shaft 33 and thus collar 52 to continue to a slight extent its rotation after the hub 37 becomes stationary, since the coil spring 58 functions as a resilient drive.

F or other classes of machines it may be desirable to omit the use of a clutch construction entirely, so that the power applied to the sprocket wheel will be directly transmitted to drive shaft 33. Thus, in the modification shown in Figure 7 the hub v37 is secured to shaft 33 by means of a key 59.

In operation the drive mechanism is adapted to impart rotations to the coil 10, whereby the metal is fed to the feed rolls 45 and 46. For directing the path of the metal and also to prevent excessive bulging of the coil, the uprights 14 are provided with an adjustable idler 60, mounted on a transverse shaft 61, adjustably positioned uponv the uprights by means of a slot 62. From thisl idler the metal is passed through a series of rollers 63 and 64 j ournaled on transverse shafts 66 and 67 respectively. These rollers are also adjustable upon the uprights 13 by means of an angle plate 68 secured to the uprights 13 by bolts 69 and adjustable by means of a slot 70. Se cured to the depending flange of the plate 68 are upright supports 71, which form the securing means for the transverse shafts 66 and 67 described. The strip of metal after passing through the feed rollers 63 and 64 is then presented to the operating parts of the press with which it is associated, the device being located at the desired distance from the press bed by means of brace bars 72.

Referring to Figures 8 and 9 a modified form of power drive mechanism for reels is disclosed, which employs a form of direct drive from a scource of power, such as an electric motor 80. The supporting rollers 27 and 34 are mounted upon journal boxes upon the base 11 in the same manner as described with reference to the preferred embodiment shown in Figure 1. The drive shaft, however, is omitted and in its place the shaft 32 has keyed or otherwise secured to it a gear wheel 81, which meshes with a worm gear 82, keyed to shaft 83, which shaft is journaled within bearings 84. The shaft 83 forms the drive shaft of the motor 80.

This modified form contemplates automatic brake mechanism, which is to be operated in connection with the operation of the motor 7,. 80. This brake mechanism takes the form of a solenoid brake 85, mounted upon pedestal 86 located adjacent the motor 80. The operative parts of the solenoid brake are of conventio-nal construction and include a brake C collar 87, operating on a brake drum secured ately upon dis-continuance of the electric current to the motor 80. When the current is again supplied to the motor the solenoid is operated to release the brake and shaft 83 is accordingly rotated to drive supporting rollers 27 and 34.

Still another modication of the present invention is disclosed in Figures 10 and 11, wherein the power applied to the supporting rollers for driving the reel, may be secured from a belt driven pulley 90. Also in this modified form the supporting rollers 27 and 34 are journaled in bearing boxes upon the base 11 in the same manner as was described with reference to the preferred embodiment shown in Figure 1. For transmitting the power from pulley 90 to shaft 32 a friction disc 91 is keyed or otherwise secured to shaft 32. Shaft 92 has a friction pinion 93 mounted thereon which pinion engages the face of friction disc 91, the shaft in turn being journaled at one end in bearinc 94 and at its other end in bearing 95. Tqhe pulley 90 is loosely mounted on shaft 92 and'is adapted tobe engagedby a clutch collar 96 actuated through handle 97. The shaft 92 is therefore positively driven from pulley 90 when the clutch 96 is thrown into operative position.

For adjusting the speed of the friction drive mechanism, `the pinion 93 has engagement with collar 98, which may be positioned at desired points by reason of the threaded shaft 100 upon which the collar 98 is threaded. For rotating the threaded shaft 100 and imparting longitudinal movement to the collar 98, a bevel gear 101 is keyed to the threaded shaft 100 and meshes with bevel gear 102 keyed to the operating shaft 103, provided with a hand wheel 104. It is therefore seen that, as the operator rotates shaft 103 in the desired directions, the collar 98 will be positioned on shaft 100 to thereby vary the position of the friction pinion 93. This construction therefore functions to vary the speed of rotation imparted to shaft32 and thus to the supporting rollers while a constant speed may be applied by means of a belt to the wheel 90.

It is to be understood that I do not wish to be limited by the exact embodiment of the device shown, which is merely by way of illustration and not limitation, as various and other forms of the device will of course be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the claims.

I claim:

1. In a device of the character described, a base member, a plurality of spaced supporting rollers journaled in the base, a driving shaft journaled in said base, pinions operatively connecting said drive shaft with one of said rollers, means operatively connecting said rollers, a clutch located on said drive shaft comprising, a hub loosely mounted thereon, a sprocket wheel secured to the hub, a collar keyed to the shaft, and resilient means which serve to transmit rotations of the sprocket wheel to the collar and to permit continued rotation of the collar after the rotary movement of the sprocket wheel has stopped.

2. In a device of the character described, a base member, a plurality of adjustably spaced supporting rollers journaled in said base for supporting a reel of stock, a driving shaft journaled in the base, pinions operatively connecting said drive shaft with one of said rollers, means operatively connecting said rollers, a clutch located on said drive shaft comprising a collar keyed to the shaft, a sprocket wheel rotatably mounted on said collar, and resilient means adapted to transmit rotations of the sprocket wheel to the sov collar, said means also serving to permit rotary movement of the collar after the sprooket Wheel has ceased its rotation, and means rotating the sprocket Wheel to Cause rotation of the reel of stock.

Signed at Chicago, Illinois, this 26th day of February, 1930.

FREDERICK J. LITTELL.y 

